Descending eastward, the highland meadows are a stairway to the plain. In July the inland scope of the Rockies is luxuriant with flax and buckwheat, stonecrop and larkspur. The earth unfolds and the limit of the land recedes. Clusters of trees, and animals grazing far into the distance, cause the vision to reach away and wonder to build upon the mind. (N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain, 1968)